I know this blog is for cool Istanbul but so much of ‘cool’ Istanbul residents move to Turkbuku in the summer and I’ve spent a fair amount of time myself there this summer that I thought I’ll dedicate a post entry to Turkbuku before the summer is over.Turkbuku is on the north side of Bodrum peninsula, but is very different to other Bodrum resorts of Gumbet, Torba, Turgutreis, etc. It is mainly a Turkish resort, very upmarket and outrageously expensive. It is similar in feel (though not in look) to St Tropez, Miami Beach, etc with expensive yachts, celebrities (Turkish and International), expensive restaurants, exclusive beach clubs, big villas, VIP clubs.
Turkbuku is a new resort. 15 years ago there was a small village and one restaurant on a jetty (Mey), well, things have changed.
Turkbuku is on a beautiful bay, quite big, with its neighbouring bay Golkoy. They brought the 2 bays under the same administration last year and started calling in Golturkbuku but no one calls it that!! Turkbuku it is. Golkoy is quieter and laid back.
Now Turkbuku is not for everyone but there are many lovers of Turkbuku (myself included)
Turkbuku bay is divided into 2, divided by the river flowing into the sea. If you’re facing the sea, the left side is the happening side, the right side, well, the more relaxed (read not smart enough)
On the smart side there are jetty after jetty of bars, restaurants, beach clubs and night clubs, all in one place. Let me explain – during the day they are beach clubs where you either rent a bed or gazebo for the day or pay an entrance fee, then they are sunset bars around 7, they become restaurants around 9 and bar and club after midnight.

After you spend a week in Turkbuku, you would feel like you have jet lag as the day begins around 1pm and end around 6am.
There aren’t that many hotels in Turkbuku as the main crowd from Istanbul either have summer villas there or come with their yachts (ideally both)
The hotels are of very good quality:Ada Hotel : a beautiful small boutique hotel of the Relais and Chateau group with an exquisite Turkish Bath. A little uphill, but with a jetty beach club and free shuttle service. http://www.adahotel.com/Maca Kizi : A very established hotel and beach club at the end of the bay. Very popular. http://www.macakizi.com/Maki Hotel : Next to Maca Kizi with a popular beach club. http://www.makihotel.com.tr/Divan Palmira : In the heart of all action, with a nice pool area, nice beach club and a great bar. An old favourite with many people, some who spend the whole season there. http://www.divan.com.tr/hotel/palmira/default.asp?sxx=0Iber Princess Hotel : A large hotel, at the end of the bay, on its own small picturesque peninsula. Modern hotel but has a wonderful beach club. This summer the hotel became All Inclusive and went a bit downmarket with the clientele (packet tours etc), only the private villas are still OK with their own VIP beach. http://www.turkeyhotelsguide.net/iberhotelbodrumprincessturkey.htmlKuum Hotel. Opened this year, weird modern architecture, very minimalist and a great beach club http://www.id-mag.com/article/kuum/Ev Hotel : Minimalist villas, Ian Schrager style, on top of the hill. Very trendy, very expensive. http://www.designhotels.com/hotels/europe/turkey/bodrum/ev_bodrum_turkey

Top Beach Clubs 2008 : Beach clubs in Bodrum are the place to be during the day unless you have your own boat or invited to a friend’s boat. They usually charge 75YTL to 100 YTL entrance fee, but whatever you spend inside is taken off this so it is a way guarantee a minimum spend for you. If you spend more then this, you must pay the extra.

Maca Kizi, http://www.macakizi.com/Maki,http://www.makihotel.com.tr/Biancahttp://www.biancabeach.com/ – large beautiful and fun. Great bar scene around 6pm where the beautiful people of Turkbuku flock for the sunset party. Has a great Greek Tavern at nights.Iber Princess Hotel – very pretty but clientele gone down this year.Kuum Beach – The highlight of 2008, great location, beautiful sea, great service. My favourite. With a new hotel http://www.id-mag.com/article/kuum/Lola and Ada – next to each other in the bay, small jetties, but don’t have minimum spend, you hire beds for the day for around 6YTL. Good bar and restaurant service in both.

Top Restaurants and ClubsShipahoy : The top top top club is Shipahoy and has been for years. A beach club during the day, in the evening it transforms to the hottest place to be. http://www.shipahoybodrum.com/
White barrels act as bar tables and the few seats are bottle service only for the VIPs (which are plenty in Turkbuku) Large tip is needed to secure these. Hundreds of people, young and old, decend here ta night to drink the expensive cocktails (25 – 30 YTL each) and sort of shuffle to the great club music later at night interspersed with Turkish tunes.Guverte. At the unpopular end of the bay, they host popular Turkish singers and performers all summer. Program starts around 1.30am, set price for music and local drinks, price depends on the performer.Fidele : Great restaurant, next door to Shipahoy, mainly seafood, with their signature mezes and main courses. http://www.fidelehotel.net/indextr.htmDivan Palmira, Macakizi, Maki hotels have good restaurants.
Many many more restaurants along the bay from Casita Manti to Changa, Bodrum Manti, all have their main locations in Istanbul.

Dress Code : Turkbuku is unique and have its own dress code among all of the holiday resorts. It is a weird mixture of dress down beach with designer wear. I’ll speak about women here as men don’t care what they wear, linen shirts, shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, anything dress down goes. It’s the girls who go mad!
Beachwear is designer label bikinis, the smaller the better, preferably with sequins and sparkly bits on. On top of the bikini, a trendy loose kaftan of any colour, , short or long, again with sequins. This kaftan can either be designer or bought from ‘Ipekce’ shop on the Turkbuku bay, selling Indian sourced kaftans and jewellery. On top of the kaftan you need chunky cheapish jewellery of glass, beads, semi precious stones such as turquoise, amber. Large bracelets, necklaces hair accessories, anklets, they don’t need to be taken out while swimming, though I fail to understand how they can stay afloat with so many stuff on!! Hair this year was big. It has to be styled so that it looks like you’ve just woken up, put a hair clip on and came down the beach, which can only be achieved after careful grooming. Some women wear high heeled wedges and some wear trendy flip flops, either is acceptable, depending on how tall you are I suppose.
Night time, this uniform is more or less kept, maybe a pair of shorts and a longer kaftan sometimes, not necessarily. You only need to add a lot of make-up and you’re there!!Typical Day in Turkbuku :
Wake up at 12.
Beach club around 1.30pm
Beach party in beach club, or sunset drinks in Shipahoy or Divan : 6 – 8pm
Home for rest, wash and change
Dinner : 10pm – 12
Bar : 12- 2am
Club or watch performer : 2- 5am
Morning eat in Bodrum Manti : 5- 6am

Not much English is spoken in Turkbuku and menus are usually in Turkish but the quality of food and service is very good as they depend on repeat customers. This place is the choice of many celebrities from Olivier Martinez to Cavalli to Uma Thurman and Paris Hilton. What can I say, they liked it.

Have fun in Turkbuku!!

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23 comments on “Istanbul on Sea – Turkbuku, Bodrum”

Gunaydin,
I had no idea that Turkbuku was a “jetty place”. So, I found your article quite interesting as this is the place where I will be spending 9 days of my “pre-summer” holidays. I am not a “jetty” person but nevertheless I am sure I will enjoy it. I like to observe people to whom the way they look is more important than who they are! Yes, I will be one of those who is putting the Princess Hotel down on the market.
Tesekur ederim
Karine

You will really like Princess Hotel, it’s little private bay is very pretty, that firts photo with the umbrellas is taken there. Make sure you go to Turkbuku bay at night, even only for the people watching, it’s fun!! Have a great holiday.

Hi Kozano – you seem to know Turkbuku very well. I’m about to book my hotel for this summer in late june start july and was wondering about the hotels. Is it worth paying EUR 325 for Maca Kizi over EUR 200 for Maki Hotel? Does it make a big difference where you stay or is it pretty much all the same. thanks so much, Michael

I’ve not stayed in either, but have been to their beach clubs many times. They are right next to each other and Maki does not have a bad reputation at all, Maca Kizi is more established, in larger land and at the very end of the bay, a bit more exclusive. Its beach club and food is really nice, but Maki is not bad at all. I can’t see that it would make that much difference, Maki has the advantage of being able to strall into the rest of Turkbuku more easily. If you want to rub shoulders with Turkish celebrities(!) then head to Maca Kizi 🙂

Kuum is a lovely hotel, quiet, and very modern. You need a short transport to the restaurants and cafes of Turkbuku though. Maca kizi is older and more established and a beautiful beach club and easier for access to the main Turkbuku restaurants and bars but which also means may be a bit more noisy at night. Saying that our house just on the hill behind Macakizi and it’s not that noisy. So if you want new cutting edge design it’s Kuum, an older established hotel Macakizi. They both attract similar clientele, their beach clubs equally nice (I spent many days in Kuum last year) Kuum being newer you may have more attention as a client than Macakizi as Macakizi have their regulars from Istanbul, but this is just speculation.
You can also have a look at Ada, Ev and Divan Palmyra.

Dear Kozano,
Thank you very much for the extensive information and having purchased a villa in Yalikavak we plan to tour the peninsular this summer and would focus very much on Turkbuku after your excellent post. Let it sound funny but are children welcome in Turkbuku and would you kindly recommend child-friendly places in there so that our 7 girl could feel at home there too?
Many thanks in advance,
Maria

Turkey is a very child friendly place and Turkbuku is not an exception. Turkish people take their kids with them to most places, all beach clubs and restaurants are child friendly and staff spoil them. Don’t be surprised or alarmed when people pick them up, squeeze their cheeks and play with them, even in Turkbuku. The jetty area becomes very club-like in the late evening and very loud so after 10 – 11pm you would not want to stay out late but even then you’ll see children that age or younger. The right half (when you are facing the sea) of Turkbuku is quieter and ideal for a stroll at night with small shops, stalls selling jewellery and trinkets, ice cream places, small family friendly cafes. I am taking my little boy to Turkbuku in September (he will be 4.5 months old)

I just wanted to thank you for your blog! This was the most incredibly helpful bit of information on Turkbuku that I found in one place! I’ve been searching online for hours, and was piecing together disparate information – but this helps to validate what I was thinking.

I’m going at the end of June and was thinking of booking the Maki. But based upon what I’ve read, I’m now considering EV and Ada hotels. Being in a convenient, central location is important to me, as well as being in a hip, cool scene. Would you have a recommendation between one of those three options?

I Absolutely loved your blog so helpful! Ive actually been to Istanbul and Izmir about 2 years ago and fell in love. Im going back this summer in July for a month and plan on Visiting Bodrum this time. My question is that Im a little confused with picking a Hotel Maca Kizi is definitely a top choice of mine but my mother really likes the Kempinski in Barbaros Bay! which I know is on a completely different side from Turbuku. Me being young I want to be near the night life of course! My question to you is, do you know if that Hotel is far from any of the city areas and night life?

Kempinki is really quite far, on a secluded bay with no town nearby. It is a stunning property but remote and self contained. You need shuttle or taxi to and from Bodrum town which is the closest. Turkbuku would be too far to go probably. Maca Kizi is a more luxury boutique hotel and Kempinski a luxury AI. very different. A very difficult choice to make!

Just arrived at Turkbuku today so I will update very soon! But generally they have some kind of general door policies to eliminate the most undesireables but in Turkbuku money and style talks so unless it is a very busy weekend it should not be a problem. Get the girls to wear bling kaftans and sandals and wear huge shades 🙂 Never underestimate the power of a little tipping the door staff if it seems entry may be a problem and try to go before noon. The jetties in Turkbuku bay itself this year are not allowed to charge for entry any more and can only charge for food and drinks consumed, which is good news. Maca Kizi, Kuum will operate as usual.

I’m back from Turkbuku!!! I again spent most of my time in either Kuum or Macakizi. Macakizi has a bit more strict door policy, they operate a VIP card system in busy times. Kuum does not but the Kuum restaurant, I am warning you, is very expensive. This year the exclusive Istanbul restaurant group 29 took over the management and hiked up the prices. But they made the place even nicer. Kuum does not have minimum spend. Maca Kizi requires you to spend 125TL, Divan Palmira 100TL and Maki 125TL.

It’s really unusual to find somebody who has so much great advise about Turkbuku — I went there for the first time this year – and it is the premium spot on the Bodrum Peninsula to spend a day. The Bay was beautifully clear and clean, and we had a great day there.

It would be great to have you as a guest blogger on my Bodrum site – especially to blog about Turkbuku. I haven’t come across many people who even know where it is, let alone have visited it.

That’d be great. The only strict guidelines for my site are that the content is relevant to the Bodrum Peninsula – other than that – you pretty much have free reign.

There’s a few different options depending on how much content you want to write.

1. Top 5 in less than 50 – create a list (or lists) of your top 5 picks – in less than 50 words
2. Top 5 Waxing Lyrical – create a list of your top 5 picks – but you can use as many words as you like
3. A free-form narrative of any topic to do with the Bodrum peninsula.

So whether you like structure of creating a Top 5 list, or you’d prefer to create free-form content – the choice is yours.

As you have so much knowledge about Turkbuku – it would be good to leverage that to create the guest blog post. And if you have so much content you’re not sure what to focus on — how about creating a bunch of smaller posts.

The goal of my site is to showcase different peoples experience of the Bodrum Peninsula – as everyone has different tastes and interests, the key way I can ensure a cross section of information, is to encourage content submissions from guest bloggers.

If you click on Top 5 in my tag cloud you’ll see examples of some previous top 5 posts.

Let me know if you have any questions. I really look forward to including some of your content on my site. Feel free to email me it you need additional input. thanks, Jay